General

I know that many of you dressed up for Halloween. But, please tell me that you didn’t dress up like this:

(Courtesy of the fine folks at the TechEBlog)

Now that we have been able to test our word processors against the final version of Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), more bugs have been fixed, and new beta versions have been released.

Remember, these are beta versions, and things happen. The software could act out, throw tantrums, make prank phone calls, and generally misbehave. So handle with care, folks.

It looks like things will be back to normal very soon. We are now shipping all orders, and those orders should be reaching people in the next few days, if not sooner.

For most of us, it is now about cleaning up the mess, and ourselves. I will wait until Saturday night, however, as I bathe on Saturday whether I need to or not.

Thank you all for your patience.

Things seem to be getting a bit better here. The wind has died down, and is now coming from the west. This means that they are now able to receive air support, which helps the fire crews. Thanks to that, some of the fires are finally getting under control. People are being allowed to move back into their homes. Help has arrived in the form of money and other Federal assistance.

But, it isn’t over yet. The fires are still burning, and there are a great many people still in danger. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

As for Nisus, we are hoping to get back to normal (if there is such a thing) as soon as possible. My guess is by Monday we should be up to full speed, but don’t hold me to that.

Frankly, it will be nice just to be able to breathe normally again.

New beta versions of both Nisus Writer Pro and Nisus Writer Express are now available. These betas are compatible with pre-release versions of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). I say pre-release because we do not have access to the final version of Leopard, and won’t until Friday at 6:00 PM. Don’t get me started on this topic.

Besides Leopard compatibility there are also bug fixes and new macro commands for Pro.

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is beta software, and is still in development. Please take appropriate caution. Use copies of important documents, for example. Read the release notes before using the software.

Enjoy!

As most of you in the USA know, we are experiencing a firestorm here in San Diego County. Most of us have never seen anything like this, and we have had some big fires. Over 500,000 people have been evacuated and something like 1750 homes have been destroyed or damaged. Many of us have friends who have been evacuated, or worse have lost houses. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and all of the other victims of this tragedy.

Our building is potentially in the path of one of the fires, so we have not been able to report to work. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything. We are still doing business, though at the moment it is a bit limited. We are not able to ship anything out. Once things are calm here, we will ship those orders. Anyone calling us will not get an answer, since we aren’t there. But, sales and support questions are being answered as normal.

Also, very soon we will release a beta of Nisus Writer Pro that addresses Leopard compatibility.

So be safe, and be careful out there.

It’s a busy day for us. Along with the Pro update, we have the new version of Nisus Writer Express.

Now up to version 3.0, Pro’s little brother gets new features like Text Wrap around images, Glossaries, Widow and Orphan Control, Small Caps support, and an improved Find and Replace engine. Notes are improved, and there are the usual bug fixes.

Express 3.0 costs $45, and upgrades from previous versions of Express are $30.

You can try out a fully working demo version, or purchase from our store.

As always, enjoy!

Nisus Writer Pro 1.0.1 is now available for your downloading pleasure. No new features, but a host of fixes and enhancements. The main recipients of these fixes and enhancements are the Nisus Macro language and the Find and Replace engine.

Download this new version from here.

Enjoy!

Nisus Writer Pro was named a software pick of the week by Leo Laporte of the MacBreak Weekly podcast. To hear the full podcast visit this page. The Nisus Writer Pro mention is at 52:35. But, the show is pretty good, definitely worth a listen.

The new issue of MacFormat includes a review of Nisus Writer Pro. The review is not yet posted online, but I can tell you that it is in issue #186, page 85.

I can also tell you that out of a possible 5 stars, NW Pro receives 5 stars! It is a MacFormat Choice as well.

By the way, those of us in the US and Canada can pick up MacFormat in your local bookstore. Just sayin’ …

… there is this column by John C. Dvorak.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the world as we know it has come to an end.

Nisus Writer Pro has been chosen as a Staff Pick on Apple’s OS X Download page.

(Look quickly, the page may change at any moment!)

Needless to say, we are pretty excited by that around here. As Homer Simpson would say, woo-hoo!

The first review of Nisus Writer Pro is out. These things always make me nervous, as you just never know what people might write. But seeing this quote made me smile:

“What is nice about Nisus Writer Pro is that it works very simply, elegantly and cleanly. The writing screen is uncluttered; tool bars and information panels, by default, are on the right-hand side of the screen. The features bar above the typing area is very simple; the Mac menu structure makes finding the right tool for the job rather easy. One little informational window on the right side keeps a running word count of a document, something those of us who write to specification can truly appreciate.”

Sorry, I don’t mean to be tooting our horn here, but I am so happy that the first review is a good one. Oh who am I kidding, I do mean to toot our horn. Sosumi.

You can read the article in its entirety here:

Nisus Writer Pro Review in the Washington Times

This morning we officially released Nisus Writer Pro. As some of you know, it has been on the site for a couple of days. We held off sending out newsletters and other notifications due to the Fourth of July holiday here in the USA.

Thanks to all who beta tested, both privately and publically. Also thanks to the localizers who volunteered their time and effort for our French, German, and Spanish localizations.

If you have any support questions, or general comments on Pro, please use our contact page to send your inquiry to the appropriate people. You can also use the Send Feedback feature in Nisus Writer Pro.

Just in time for your rest of the weekend pleasure, the second Nisus Writer Pro Public Beta has been released.

A lot of bug fixes, enhancements to our macro language, and the addition of French, German, and Spanish localizations are included.

We offer no formal technical support for beta software, but remember that you can ask questions in our forums.

Disclaimer: Remember that this is beta software, and is still in development. It might crash, corrupt files, and generally be very naughty. Please take appropriate caution.

You can help us improve the software by sending feedback using the “Send Feedback” feature, which is located under the “Help” menu in Pro.

Happy downloading!

We will find out Monday if Sun CEO and long-hair Jonathan Schwartz was overly optimistic, or right on the money.

At a Sun event on Wednesday, Mr. Schwartz said “This week, you’ll see that Apple is announcing at their Worldwide Developers Conference that ZFS has become the file system in Mac OS X.”

What does this mean to you and me (thanks, Scott!)? I suppose we will find out Monday. However, this Macworld article explains what ZFS is, and perhaps how Apple could add it to Leopard without causing pain to its users.

Currently playing in iTunes: Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush

We had hoped to have released the final version of Pro by now, but as you can tell, that hasn’t happened yet. So, within the next few days, there will be a new public beta to replace the current version, which will expire on June 11.

When it is released, I will post about it right here, in our forum, and on our RSS feed.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to catch up on my Paris Hilton news.

Currently playing in iTunes: Eleanor Rigby (Strings Only) by The Beatles

Lately, we have been receiving a lot of mail asking us if Express will be updated. It’s a fair question. Express hasn’t been updated in a while, since most of our resources have been devoted to Pro.

However, once Pro is released, we will turn our attention to Express. I can’t really disclose too much at this point, but I will talk about a few things.

I can reveal that Express 3.0 will include the following features:

• Glossaries
• Text wrap around images
• Widow and Orphan control
• Small Caps support

There will also be the usual bug fixes.

As for pricing, I can say that it probably won’t differ too much from what we are charging currently. There will be an upgrade price, but I am sure it won’t break the bank.

That was my long winded way of saying yes, Express will be updated. Hope you didn’t fall asleep while reading …

Now that the Nisus Writer Pro public beta is out those users interested in exploring our macro enhancements can do so. However, we thought that we should let those users know that there will be additional macro commands available by the time we release. Probably the most needed of these extra commands are those that allow introspection and manipulation of the current selection.

This blog post by Wil Shipley accurately sums up how I feel about the delay of Leopard until October. Without breaking my NDA, let’s just say that the delay is a good move. Tiger is still working, the sun will come up in the morning, and the fuzzy bunnies will still be around and multiplying faster than you can shoo them away from your yard.

In other Leopard related news, MacFixIt has an article on some of the troubleshooting-related changes that will be taking place. One change that caught my eye was this one:

“The Software Update mechanism in Leopard will force the user to quit all open applications before applying most updates. This change is made in an attempt to obviate problems that can be caused by other processes occurring while new software is being installed.”

I can remember back in the OS 9 days when Apple updates required you to quit all of your active applications. Sounds like we are headed back in that direction.

If this information is true, it’s back to the future yet again.